worldbuilding

My brand new world-building book is out now! Pop over to Amazon to check it out. The Kindle version is available to pre-order and will be released on 1 October.

It’s my guide to creating a believable world for your stories, no matter what medium you use to tell them or how fantastical (or even mundane) your setting. There are worksheets, writing exercises and illustrations to help you out. There is also a checklist of things you might not have considered (but probably ought to know).

Hopefully, this book will help some of you out, especially considering that it is time to start planning for NaNoWriMo. November will be here before you know it!

Cover art? Check. Blurb? Check. Words for the inside of the book? Check! It’s all coming together nicely – and here’s a sneak preview of the cover, just for you. The release is currently scheduled for October with the pre-orders coming in September. If you liked my worksheets, please check it out – it’s got even more resources to help you with your work.

It’s been a busy year for me so far with a lot of deadlines, but I’m really looking forward to this one. Stay tuned for more news soon!

So this year has been a bit of a downer so far, but finally, I have writing-related good news! Issue 2 of Story Emporium (Purveyors of Steampunk & Weird Western Adventure) is coming out in August and my short story The Herald may be featured. You can check out the cover art for the magazine here.

In other news, I promise I haven’t given up on The Rage. I’m just taking a little break and rebooting my writing brain so that the next part is as good as it possibly can be. I’ll admit, I lost my way with it a little and wrote several versions of the next episode, but none of them were quite good enough. Plus, with all this summer, you’ve got to get outside while the sun is shining!

Also this year, I will be publishing my world-building book and I’m looking for people to join in with my cover reveal. Post a comment below to let me know if you’re interested.

Every civilisation needs laws of some sort, whether they are defined by the state, social convention or a god. Law is one of those lovely things you can use to keep your characters in check. It’s also a great tool for forcing your characters to do things they don’t really want to do.

This week’s worksheet is designed to be used over and over whenever you visit somewhere new (or old) to build up your own reference library for sensory details in places. It’s one of the things that my beta-readers often tell me needs improving. I know what the places looks and feels like, but I’ve not put enough of it into the writing. By building up a reference library, you can look back at places you’ve visited and recall more clearly how it felt to actually be there.Continue reading →

Due to a quirk of nature by which I am both terrible at remembering things and using the internet, last week’s worksheet didn’t get uploaded. So, happy Monday, everybody. Here’s a bonus for you.Continue reading →